by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
There may be new life coming for the old Park View Inn.
The now-closed motel at the corner of State and Main streets once was a popular stop — it earlier was known as the Heart of Jacksonville — and its future may be as apartments to serve the nearby Florida Community College at Jacksonville.
Kerri Stewart, director of the City’s Housing and Neighborhoods Department, met this week with Robert van Winkel and David Muyres, two of the partners of QPS Inc., owner of the Park View Inn. The meeting was held to discuss how the city might help get the renovation of the property on track.
The environmental issues that have held the project back for years may soon be resolved, said van Winkel.
“The Park View’s environmental issues have become an urban legend,” he said. “We’ve heard everything from it should be a Superfund site to that it’s no problem.”
Van Winkel added that data from the 16 monitoring wells on the property indicate that the contamination present in the nearby park and creek isn’t migrating to the Park View property.
“They took out 10 feet of soil for the parking garage when the motel was built. We believe that whatever was there is gone,” said van Winkel.
“And whatever was there is covered over with several feet of concrete,” added Muyres. “Unless there is a huge surprise, we believe it’s going to be bankable.”
Also at the meeting was Stephen Klee, president of the Medallion Group, a company based in Atlanta that specializes in developing multi-family residential projects.
Klee said his company’s main focus is converting buildings into rental workforce housing as opposed to condominiums. He said he was in town to look at projects that might be used to house students, staff and faculty at Florida Community College at Jacksonville.
“We’re looking at the Park View as a rental community for students,” and added that he came to Jacksonville, “To see if there was a deal that would make sense.”
QPS believes there is a big need for more rental apartments Downtown, said van Winkel. “The whole idea is to have people living in the units rather than speculating. Bringing people Downtown will help the neighborhood.”
Stewart pointed out that the City is in a position to assist the project.
“We have the same type of dollars that condominium developers can use (available) for developers of rental property,” she said. “Jacksonville has the opportunity to look at what has happened in other cities and understand that it’s coming our way. We can avoid being like Miami and Orlando. Both lack affordable workforce housing.”
Stewart also offered to provide QPS and the Medallion Group examples of projects that have worked for other developers. She added that the Housing and Neighborhoods Department board wants to be more proactive in making things happen and that if the project is approved, there are state and Federal funds that could be used to finance it with no City money involved.
“This can be a win for both of us. The developer gets a profitable venture and the City gets workforce housing,” she said.